Saturday, May 26, 2012

I enjoyed watching this little guy learn to skip rocks. He arrived at the park on the back of his brother's bike, standing on pegs on the back wheel... not sure what they are called :) He was so excited as he would watch his brother explain how to skip a rock then he would attempt, squealing with delight after each stone he threw, and calling out "brother, look" after each attempt. I thought he made a great opportunity for a sunset silhouette shot. You can see the stone in his hand. He hasn't quiet grasped the technique of skipping stones yet, but he was so full of joy and excitement as he and his brother and sister enjoyed time at the park just being kids. I was amazed at the patience and carefulness of the older brother to watch over the younger two, and he seemed to be having just as much fun as the little ones.

I thought I would add that the water is shallow at this little docking area in the picture... less than 2 feet. I noticed looking at the picture it looked like it was deep water.

Thursday, May 24, 2012

I wasn't satisfied with my little yellow flower shot last night so I decided to try again today and see if I could do any better. This morning it has opened up more so I it looks totally different. The petals aren't wet but they sure look like it. I wonder if that is something on the little petals to attract the bees?

Friday, May 18, 2012

I liked the morning light so well, I decided to go back at sunset and shoot the geese again :) It proved to be quiet a challenge to get the geese into the spots I needed them in. They got so accustomed to me they only wanted to walk around with their heads down picking grass. If I stood up and moved they would watch me until I became still again preparing to shoot them...... then go back to picking grass. There are a few more on my regular blog too. http://www.joannthrasher.blogspot.com/

Reds, Angela 2932 and Nicki.... Thank You! and I am shooting with a Canon 70-300 lens. I think I probably would need something as long as 500mm to be serious about wild life shooting. I didn't even go look at BIG lenses for fear I would want one :)

This is camera crop for the last image I posted.... #125...you can see I had to crop quiet a bit. Some of the time the birds are even farther away than this. They came much closer to me last time I was shooting them.

I am a patient person but these birds were displaying extraordinary behavior. I knew where they would nest, so when I would approach the area they would begin to chatter and hop about from cat tail to cat tail and watch me. I assumed they were trying to lead me away from their nests. I could see a few nests that appeared to be empty but couldn't see any nests that had anything in them...... at first. When I got back to my computer and opened the pictures I could see they were catching bugs as they hopped about and chirpped.... sometimes having several bugs in their mouth at the same time. I never saw them eat the bugs or do anything with them but I noticed at different times in my series of pictures they would go from having a mouth full of bugs to no bugs so I thought they were at some point just deciding to eat what they were holding :) They would at times go out of my sight down low in the cat tails growing thick along the edge of the river. However on my 3rd time to observe and shoot them I discovered they were actually catching bugs to feed their babies!! This nest is out in the water about 15-20 feet so I couldn't get a clear shot but you can see a baby. Actually I think there are about 3 babies in this nest. I can see them move if I watch through my 70-300 lens.